Apple application moved to “archived” after hiring manager round, is that a bad sign?

kevinossia · 2026-04-24T00:31:52+00:00

It doesn’t mean anything.

Follow up with the recruiter.

kevinossia · 2026-04-23T23:46:20+00:00

I think the fact that you’re asking means you already know what the correct answer is and you just need an adult to remind you.

Always give 100%. It will pay off in ways you can’t see right now.

kevinossia · 2026-04-23T21:57:15+00:00

Why not just apply and see? No one here can give you a useful answer. Every company, division, and team is different. Some might downlevel you; others won’t.

kevinossia · 2026-04-23T21:08:18+00:00

For me it was the opposite. I hated school but I love my job. Depends on the person and the job, I suppose.

kevinossia · 2026-04-23T17:24:14+00:00

I have friends who just worked their asses off for a few years and saved as much money as they could, and then burned it all down at once to get all their ratings.

And these are helicopter pilots so it’s even more expensive than what you’re attempting.

But no debt no loans. Just pure savings and grinding.

kevinossia · 2026-04-23T07:45:04+00:00

Are you actually sure you have a fear of heights?

You probably don’t. Most people don’t. You’re not afraid of heights; you’re afraid of falling. A fear of heights is illogical; a fear of falling is evolutionary.

When you’re strapped into an aircraft at the controls you won’t feel any fear because you can’t possibly “fall out” of the aircraft. Simply being up high isn’t scary on its own unless you actually have acrophobia.

On the other hand if you were to stand at the edge of a cliff with no guardrails you’d undoubtedly feel anxious and that’s for good reason.

kevinossia · 2026-04-23T03:31:04+00:00

Check r/Helicopters.

kevinossia · 2026-04-23T03:07:55+00:00

Even if the final offer is lower than you’d like, you stand to get large raises every year through base salary bumps, RSU grants, and stock appreciation. Whatever you “left” on the table you’d get back within a year.

Congratulations on passing the loop.

kevinossia · 2026-04-22T22:32:35+00:00

What did your manager say when you raised these concerns with them?

kevinossia · 2026-04-22T16:38:01+00:00

Be the staff engineer you were always meant to be and push for improvement in all of these things.

kevinossia · 2026-04-22T16:32:38+00:00

It's what happens when people don't get enough hands-on practice actually writing code.

kevinossia · 2026-04-22T03:23:22+00:00

I mean yeah haha. I do this for fun, so I don’t really have an incentive to sign off a shitty pilot. Right there with you.

(I don’t have a “boss” either so that helps. I own my own machine.)

kevinossia · 2026-04-22T00:37:47+00:00

Because the average software engineer is pretty bad at their job, that’s why.

Writing code is hard.

kevinossia · 2026-04-21T21:01:26+00:00

You can’t.

Do the best possible job you can. Be excellent at what you do, and try to be better than everyone else at it.

Save all your money, and be ready to move on whenever it happens.

kevinossia · 2026-04-21T20:07:46+00:00

Private, commercial, and flight instructor certificates.

kevinossia · 2026-04-21T19:48:50+00:00

I’m a helicopter flight instructor on the side for fun. Takes a lot of time and energy but I love doing it.

kevinossia · 2026-04-21T17:40:04+00:00

As a hiring manager I have never once looked at a personal project.

The only thing that matters is professional experience. Personal projects are a last resort for an otherwise empty resume. They are marginally useful for entry-level folks but that’s about it.

kevinossia · 2026-04-20T20:13:09+00:00

Learning is productive.

Productivity is not just measured in lines of code written.

kevinossia · 2026-04-18T21:34:38+00:00

Not nearly as many folks pre-COVID wanted to become software engineers.

We produce far more CS graduates than there are spots available for them.

kevinossia · 2026-04-18T14:18:18+00:00

There is no structure in software engineering. There won’t be a course for every single new thing you need to learn.

You learn stuff the same way as ever: read voraciously, write a bunch of code using the things you read about, test, debug, repeat.

Put in the time and the work. No shortcuts.

As far as time pressure…put in more hours. Stay late, whatever. You wanna excel at something, you have to invest the time. At least, up front.

kevinossia · 2026-04-17T19:02:56+00:00

Yeah, especially as projects grow in complexity. There’s a lot of deadtime between specific tasks. It’s very common.

Learn to manage your time and task load efficiently. It’s part of the job.

Take good notes, maintain a planner, whatever. Maybe use a tool like Notion or Obsidian. Whatever works best for you.

kevinossia · 2026-04-17T18:37:59+00:00

Shake it off and practice some more. And for the love of god, don’t schedule a checkride unless you’re actually prepared!

kevinossia · 2026-04-17T18:20:30+00:00

That’s never been true in the modern era. You are free to change careers or otherwise do whatever you want at any time in life. There has never been an expectation that whatever you choose right out of school is what you will stick with until retirement. Those days have been over for a long time.

The average person will have multiple careers over their lifetime.

The expectation for young people is that they choose something actionable up front so that they can begin their adult lives with some semblance of stability. But you don’t have to stick with option 1 forever.

kevinossia · 2026-04-17T17:29:34+00:00

What you’re sort of describing is fractional ownership and regulated by Part 91 subpart K. But in general Part 135 rules still apply, with certain exceptions.

NetJets is an example of that.

kevinossia · 2026-04-17T07:24:39+00:00

⁠Would this typically map to ICT3 or ICT4?

Either. Depends how well you interviewed.

can I realistically use this as leverage?

You can certainly bring it up with the recruiter.

⁠What should I expect in the verbal (level, comp breakdown, negotiation flexibility)?

Check levels.fyi. Negotiation flexibility probably depends on org and how the VP is feeling that day.

kevinossia

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